Giveaway: Mars Attacks Book Spills Vintage Alien Gore

The aliens were inspired by the 1952 Weird Science No. 16 comic book art by Mars Attacks co-creator Wally Wood and by the 1955 movie This Island Earth.

Critics objected to the violence depicted in the cards when they were initially released.

The Golden Gate Bridge serves as setting for this card. "We tried to pick the iconic landmarks that kids could recognize," Len Brown writes in the Mars Attacks book.

The creative team debated whether Martian martinis should "look a little weirder," Brown writes. They opted for an earthling-style glass.

In the book, Brown notes that British politicians took to the floor of Parliament to denounce this card.

The original version of this card featured "a lot of skin and cleavage," writes Brown. Management insisted on a more modest graphic.

Though Tim Burton pictured tiny Martians in his movie adaptation, Brown writes, "The idea was that they were human sized."

Martians invade one of the the many bomb shelters built during the Cold War to protect inhabitants from Soviet missiles.

American soldiers finally start to triumph over the Martians during the series' last few cards.

America’s Cold War paranoia bubbled over in the early sixties when a chewing gum company famous for making baseball cards added bloodthirsty aliens to its repertoire. The Mars Attacks card art, introduced in 1962, proved too graphic for gatekeepers of public taste and Topps Chewing Gum shut down production of the short-lived 55-card series after a Connecticut district attorney complained that the artwork was “unsuitable for children.”

This Mars Attacks: 50th Anniversary Collection cover art is based on the original 1962 trading card wrapper.Images courtesy Abrams ComicArts

Fifty years later, thanks to the Curiosity mission, we know what it actually looks like when human civilization touches down on Mars and it has nothing to do with the swollen-head psychopaths depicted in the “Earthmen Land on Mars” scenario pictured above. But the work produced by writer Len Brown and artist Norm Saunders, collected now in the anthology Mars Attacks: 50th Anniversary Collection — out Monday — continues to pass muster as a lurid snapshot of sci-fi paranoia at its most pulp-fictiony.

Win Mars Attacks Hardcover

Wired is teaming with Abrams ComicArts to give away three copies of Mars Attacks: 50th Anniversary Collection. The 224-page hardcover includes four exclusive bonus Mars Attacks trading cards, commentary by co-creator Brown and Zina Saunders, sketches, concept art and test-market materials. To qualify for the contest, check out the card art in the gallery above. Then, in the comments section below, tell us: If and when aliens finally present themselves to the human race will they look anything like the ones pictured in Mars Attacks?

Deadline to enter is 12:01 a.m. Pacific on Oct. 8, 2012. Three randomly selected winners will be notified by e-mail or Twitter. Winners must live in the United States.

Note: If you do not have an e-mail address or Twitter handle associated with your Disqus login, you must include contact information in your comment to be eligible. Any winner who does not respond to Wired’s notification within 72 hours will forfeit the prize.